


Try for hundred

by Astrotheology44



Category: Shaman King (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Arguing, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, break-ups, death mentions, the usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:21:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27862973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrotheology44/pseuds/Astrotheology44
Summary: 100 tries and then more. It still isn't enough.
Relationships: Tao Ren/Usui Horokeu | "Trey Racer" Horohoro
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Try for hundred

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 100 word prompt challenge in the spirit of randomized words drops. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. The timeline of it is not linear, however. And I do like a bittersweet turn with this pair. So beware.

1.Upbeat

It's an upbeat atmosphere they remember in the end. Of each other and of the times spent, despite having the world on young shoulders and too many arguments to track. 

2.Perservere

A great responsibility on their respective ends is preserving tradition but it's also part of why at times they can't see eye to eye.

3.Suspend

"I would have to suspend disbelief for a moment and believe you were actually thinking!" Ren reproaches with a sarcastic tone and turns away after Horo threw himself headfirst into picking yet another fight.

4.Thread

The headband Horo wears is woven in thick dark and blue threads. A gift from Pirika,Ren assumes. Doesn't ask. Just looks at the intricate patterns while the other isn't wearing it.

5.Statement

"It's a statement. They do it everytime they marry or officially join with someone. They hold hands under the garlands, wait for the sun to rise above them and vow in this way." He explains based on the information he read.

"Huh, think we could do that?" Horohoro looks positively pensive.

Ren blanches. "Don't be ridiculous."

6.Plucky

"Plucky the lucky. As in lucky but a pig." Joco raises the object seemingly out of nowhere during dinner.

"You bought us a _piggy bank_.." Horohoro observes and Joco nods proudly.

"Good that now Horo won't be the only pig on the team."

7.Approval

"I don't need your approval." Horo says. But it feels like he wants the competition sometimes and the attention. It's exhausting in its own right. At least, so he thinks, until the other walks away and disappears for days at a time.

8.Icy

"Unfreeze it!" There's shouting, Jocolove covers his mouth when he sees Ren rushing out of the bathhouse they're lodged at covered in the shape of an icycle and screaming to chase after a vindicated Horo.

" Looking very _icy_ there, Ren!"

9.Umbrella

There isn't much reason to hide from storms for them but the practicality of the umbrellas and shelters comes in handy and the spaces inbetween them grow small.

10.Choke

He's got him in a chokehold again and the blue hair tickles his arms. Horo yields but he'll come back and try again. He always comes back and tries again. One of these days he'll get the better of him.

11.Step

A wrong step and it can all crumble. A wrong word and there's gonna be a misunderstanding. He's been wrong before, he can handle it. He thinks.

12.Pretend

"Why did you have to pretend you were OK?" He buries himself in Horo's chest and they move and it's really bad timing but he has to know.

But it's fragile,too. Horo laughs and gives some excuse about how he felt at that time _(I was young- it was heavy_ ) but his eyes are close to something like sadness. When they disentangle Ren feels worse, like the other is still pretending _(I'm still young - It's still heavy)._

13.Face

It's striking to see the other's face after so much time has passed. Through days and nights and rebirths this act of witnessing stays constant. 

"Couldn't miss you in a crowd if I tried." He tells Horo and the other smiles bright and he has to learn this new face- new lines and new meanings that upturn his any notion.

14.Sun

The sun hits differently after death, after Hell. They don't get to catch their breath but everything feels hyper focused and diffused all the same.

15.Steadfast

It's different types of kicks,punches, pivots. Rotate and start again. Different kinds of focus,drive, steadfast beliefs applied. He applies the same techniques when he tries to love the other and they don't produce harmony but they produce something unforgettable.

16.Story

There is perhaps an overarching story outside of their personal lives, known and woven only by the Great Spirit.

17.Tomatoes

He stammers, red as stars, red as tomatoes, cherry-cheeked. There's been a kiss and now there's searching eyes and the ghost of a touch.

"I thought, I _thought_...sorry, nevermind." Horo fumbles and leaves.

  
  


18.Impress

Ren remembers how it felt not being impressed with Horo's skill. He misses it, the constant added stress on his shoulders now everpresent.

19.Behave

He finds they behave in a loop. And yet occasionally a miracle happens. Horo stops to listen. He stops to explain. The next day they begin again.

20.Juvenile

Used to being a juvenile troublemaker of sorts, Ren remembers walking around looking for trouble. Horo thinks himself the same, but he spent more time of his youth hiding away from the troubles to appreciate this state of being.

21.Glib

Glib little statements. They don't mean much, Ren is sure. The guy tries to fight him on anything. Any form of affection, he thought at first, must be a trick.

22.Hang

"I'm getting the hang of this." Horo remarks, happy with himself for understanding to read a basic street sign away from his home country and the most base of calculus.

Ren isn't impressed and lets it out. " _Sure_ you are." But then realizes how hard the other had been trying and repeats it firmer this time. "I'm _sure_ that you _are_.."

23.Flavor

"What flavor of dumbassery is it today?" Horo blurts out "Strawberry!" without looking up from the unfinished yogurt and then turns around grumbling a flustered. " _Hey_ , wait a minute!". He never does pick up on things easy.

24.Fire

" _Don't_ do that, _damn it_!" Horohoro shouts and slaps his weapon sideways, sending him off balance, livid with anger. For once Ren feels the cold and the heat blending in that. He's calming down from a tantrum, grateful he didn't burn down the forest once he opens his eyes.

25.Hook

"Let me off the hook, I need _time to_ -" he makes to scramble for clothes and water next to the bed stand. Ren thinks the disheveled look fits Horokeu just fine. 

"I think _not_." He stares intently to make sure the other is watching, licks his lips and gets to work.

26.Blade

The Guandao's blade is wiped daily and kept up to standard. They’d scuffled. He'd killed many before. He still skips a beat every time he sees a teammate's blood running down and doubts himself even when he shouldn't anymore.

27.Drum

The usage of drums in the old rites to increase one's furyoku seems almost universal. He realizes this when he hears it and they close their eyes at the same time.

28.Blind

There are blind spots of Horo's he doesn't understand before finding out the other's background, like why he kept his gaze down- the occasional bitter demeanor and distrust.

29.Selective

"Glad your hearing is selective." He covers a confession of " _You did well,thank you_." by coughing louder on the repeat and shaking the other harder ." I said good morning."

"I heard you." Horo lingers a bit _too long_ on replying and smiles softly. Ren curses himself. That wasn't supposed to be heard. He wasn't supposed to hear it. His heartbeat catches tension between his ears.

30.Annoy

It's beyond annoyance. It's more. It's _too much._ They can't come together for long without either clashing or being forced to adapt. It's annoying how little there is to show for all of it.

31.Future

"Won't know what the future's gonna bring us, but right _now-_ " Horo finishes by closing the gap between them. There's no longer a future that matters.

32.Nebulous

"I don't understand anything with you. It's like you're a nebulous cloud or _something_!"

Ren accuses him of lacking in general comprehension, yet finds himself too often in the same swirling confusion.

33\. Merciful

Their fathers were not merciful people. They don't catch this in the remnants of each other, but there are hints of callousness of ideologies past that their hearts still have to fight against.

34\. Loss

"I've lost myself, too. So I know _. I know_ " Ren wants to tell him it's not the same, that he doesn't get it. But he'd been there to hear the story and he just sits quietly, allowing the same loss.

35\. Door 

"You already know my damn flaws. What do you want?"

"I'd like for you to open the damn door and not keep me sitting here _freezing_." 

He does so, because the way things are looking up,they might as well one day both share the same side of this conversation.

36.Belong

"There can only be one, so in the end I'm sure you idiots know I'll have to end you." Ren sighs. 

His teammates aren't all pleased and yet there comes Yoh to the rescue. 

"Sure,but for now we can all just relax."

Without Yoh, it's hard for them to just sit down and belong for a little, especially with the looks his blue-haired teammate is shooting his way.

37.Annoyed

"Why are you annoyed,Horo? I think I've made myself perfectly clear." Ren's voice rings over the dreadful and distant background chatter in the alleys.

"But you didn't! You _never_ say what you mean,Ren. You told me you're leaving, told me you need this- _us-_ he gestures desperately- _to end._. but you never let me know _how you really feel_. You're saying _all of this_ and _none_ of it is _important!_ _You-_ " He raises his hands to the rainy sky, lost.

"I think you need some air. And to clear your head, Horohoro." Ren shuts the door and leaves him out, swallowing hard. 

38.Educated

Sometimes he notices a peculiar jealousy in Horohoro when they argue. 

"Well just because you're _so and so and educated and_ -" the other would throw empty compliments his way to hide insecurity, as though he isn't better than Ren.

39.Striped

There's a pattern of cuts in the earth from his oversoul, striped lines on it from Horo's iced one. In the clear cut parallel sharpness at least they can share common ground.

40.Good

" _Horo_ , you're a good person." He'd said it before. Horo had said it to him and it had been hard to swallow and integrate, to believe it of himself. But Horo doesn't seem to at all. Something breaks . 

"I try." is the only answer he gets.

41.Vagabond

"You could have at least tried to look more like a vagabond to fit in so we don't look like we're the world's saddest lackeys!". 

Joco snickers and they both tag behind Ren and Horo isn't having it one bit.

"Carry my bags, lackey."

42.Workable

It feels like doomed potentiality. It's not going to go anywhere from here. Years pass and he's glass they're still friends. The fights, memories and the other existing despite lives moving on reminds it can all turn out quite workable.

43.Curious

Horo comes back from Hokkaido with ever more heirlooms. Ren sticks around, a stark figure in a suit against the homely design of wooden doors and furniture. Sits on the floor and doesn't belong, tags along on the pretext of important matters because he can't admit he's curious.

44.Grandmother

"Grandmother's recipe." Horo clarifies. It's such a hearty soup, he notes holding the cup in both hands and remembers simple warmth.

"Glad your family doesn't cook people." 

He enjoys the startled and concerned expression on the other's face a bit much. " _Gotcha_."

45.Fuel

There's going to be a hard time keeping the farm going. There's demands, it's very lucrative and dependent on its environment's changes. The fuel company next door still has one foot down on taking the land. 

Ren listens. Knows he can help. Knows he's being more selfish to want to hear those rants again more than he wants to help.

46.Callous

He burns himself out often but he is not so callous as Horohoro. In truth, the endless coldness exhausts him and he overexerts with purpose but will not stray too far into emptiness. 

When he falls and wakes up and their opponents lie frozen along with their teammate's spirit, he wonders.

47.Wanting

"I was _wanting_ you. I _wanted_ ... _you_ . That's all. _I wanted! Damn it_ \- I thought you also wanted-" he stomps out. Ren lets him. There's too much to say.

48.Shiver

Horo's inconsiderate of the temperature being so used to the cold sometimes. He leaves the covers off, leaves the windows open. Leaves Ren with a constant shiver before he ever even comes close.

49.Add

"Anything you want me to add?" Horo stops kissing him,which is a disappointment. He looks at Ren in earnest, all earnest almost all the time and Ren can't deal with that right now. 

"How about less adding and you substract these clothes?" he proposes instead.

50.Onerous

An onerous life isn't as hard to sustain now. Ren thrives and tries to build a future his son ca be proud of him for, to make Jeanne honored and loved at his side. He finds he misses the lightness and spontaneity still after a while.

51.Splendid

"Splendid. Now that we've befriended every animal and solved absolutely nothing." he crosses his arms, glaring.

"Do you not like squirrels? What did squirrels do to you? Is everything that breathes your enemy?" Horo antagonizes him,as usual.

"Fuck you,bastard! I happen to love squirrels but we're not getting any stronger slacking around!"

52.Awesome

"Ok. That..was awesome." Horo comments, eyes wide when he'd shown them his moves first.

"Naturally", he straightens up and sits smugly center stage.

53.Tank

"If we had to play those games you would be a tank. You don't do that much damage."

"I _do_ do damage. And you might be great at it solo but you die too often." Horo retorts.

"That's why I need a tank back-up, stupid."

54\. Macabre

He realizes Horo's held his dying body before as well as his living one. As macabre as the thought is, he doesn't know of anyone else to have held him so.

55.Rice

"It's always going to be rice, isn't it?" Horo sits up from the table.

"If you're lamenting the lack of seaweed you can go ahead and cry forever."

"Oh,I _am_ going to cry forever! And find some seaweed and make soup out of it because I've had it with just this rice."

Ren scoffs. Finds it ungrateful. Idiot doesn't even always wash the dishes.

56.Sulky

I'm busy and you're well aware. Busy running the business and tending to my wife and child and you're there all across Gods know where doing Gods know what and now you call me?"

"Ah,man. I should've known you'd be sulky as ever."

He wants to hang up immediately.

57.Spark

"Woah, wish you could _see you_ right now." Horo notes and looks at him in awe through exertion, hovering above Ren and holding him down. 

" _Move_ ." Ren orders, even now. Horo takes his hand to Ren's face instead and holds it there gently. "There was just _that spark_ in your eyes again."

58\. Admire

"I always looked up to how you didn't quit. It's something I admire about you." Ren lets himself be comforted by the memory of the words he'd been told. It's true after all. He'd survived, changed and not quit.

59.Maniacal

"Do you have to have that maniacal grin on your face everytime someone suffers?"

Ren's eyes grow _wide_. Deer in the headlights. Horo regrets calling him out at times like these.

60.Chief

Lyserg has become chief detective, so he could easily ask Lyserg about Horo's whereabouts and find out immediately about the new disappearing act. But why involve him in this? Especially knowing the finer details. His hand does come dangerously close to the phone before retreating.

61.Phone

He can't phone home yet so he's stuck with the other for the holidays. He'd thought two days can't possibly be so bad. 

By the second day he doesn't feel like he needs to phone home anymore at all.

62.Battle

A great battle requires a great will. Requires the gifts of perseverance and sharp wit. 

The former doesn't seem to get Horo anywhere with Ren. The latter doesn't seem to get Ren anywhere with Horo.

63.Wicked

They say there are onis that come into being from wicked thoughts. Like a mirror, the world does not allow anyone to sleep without meeting themselves on the other side. He thinks he already senses what his wicked thoughts would look like.

64.Ready

He thinks he' s ready for the contact. After all, he lets the other seek him out and reciprocates and it all does happen more or less organically. Passion to touching. Body to body. 

He doesn't yet figure out he could have never been ready for what it can do to him, for how it _transforms_ them.

65.Religion

When one sees the spirits of each different religion's figureheads around, it becomes difficult to stay tied up to one path. If religiousness is a spirit that binds and bonds, he does think they could be that to each other, too.

66.Damaged

Ren at times witnesses Horohoro's relationship with his sister as if it is calm and congruent, unlike the turmoil he and Jun had experienced in their upbringing. 

Horo believes the same about the other pair of siblings. Looks to Jun as a serene and guiding influence in Ren's life. That is, until he steps next to her years past and sees there's none of them who are free from being damaged.

67.Snakes

"I actually don't really like snakes."

"Are you picking favourites now? Aren't you supposed to be at one with nature and all?" He quirks an eyebrow.

"I respect it, doesn't mean I like it. Just like with you, jerk." Horo spits a bit too fast and without heart to mean any of that.

68.Teeny tiny

The spirits are listening in always. The chinese knows this and yet the teeny-tiny whispers and chatter that follow his teammate gets a bit unnerving at times.

69.Substance

He finds his teeth sticky and shoves the other boy off with more force than intended . " _What_ did you eat?!"

"Pfrtein brr-hney!" Horo unceremoniously announces the mystery substance as honey. He gives his lips a lick.

"Yeah,sorry. I overreacted."

70.Donkey

They should share. He realizes one year during the Shaman Fight. He is at a point where it would be natural to halve responsibilities again,but since Horo has gotten quite used to being a carrier donkey and does his tasks quite well within the team and at home, he is not about to upset this delicate balance.

71.Crabby

He's known for being crabby and easily responsive but it's no mystery it isn't always so. Right now, sprawled on the other's lap and resting together nobody can fault Ren of any traces of irritation.

72.Apparatus

It's a delicate apparatus the entanglement of limbs and words that it takes for them to feel right versus wrong.

73.Wilderness

Little like the wildness inside the other's soul, Ren imagines the fields and the forestry but can't quite get the depth of them knowing that Horo has seen them since so long before, before he was aching for just the unpolluted starry sky.

74.Trashy

"If that's what Pilika likes these days, it's trashy, sorry."

Horo defends his sister's taste in dramas on principle, nevertheless. Ren has to be reminded she is good of heart enough times in a day to think this of Horo himself.

75\. Scratch

"It's a scratch, I'm fine. I'll live. Really." It's a gash and it could get infected and it's really not that bad but Ren balls his fists and yells anyway, reproachful:

"Bravado doesn't look good on you at all,stupid ainu!"

76.Savory

He's so sleepy but he still stayed up for him. Ren finds Horokeu slurring words and half lost in dreams, pressed in an embrace and head against his shoulders, mouth against his ear.

"When we kissed, you know....was like not sweet, not savory. _Something_? Something else...was good."

"Yeah, it was." he bares the incoherent touches and words and cuddles against him,too.

77.Large 

There's a large gap he wants to bridge. He looks for it in Ren with heated words and it gets larger. Seeks with heart and then he doubts and it stays large. Finds him in arms and skin but they pull back-incomplete systems.

78.Hesitant

He's the team's leader and Horo is visibly overwhelmed with the training, his responsibilities. Ren's fingers twitch to sit down and comfort him. He shouldn't be but he's hesitant. He wants to help but the other won't believe him. He realizes too late the mistake of earlier mistreatments.

79.Glorious

To become as magnanimous and light in power as the Shaman King had been a glorious feat, yet even more glorious to know they hadn't been alone doing it. The surprising edge of power is the joy of sharing its height with someone else.

80.Muscle

They put on muscle. They put on new hopes. They put their lives on the line. They never get the time and practice to properly put their hearts on the table until they start seeping through the cracks on their own.

81.Null

"First of all, lay off my milk. Everything you say is null if I catch you drinking my milk."

"Your _milk_ ,huh?" Horo laughs under his breath in a display of immaturity. "Fine. Be protective of _your milk_." He laughs harder as Ren goes red.

82.Hall

"Base is round so what if it's a portal-vortex! Vortex- doughnut!" There's an animated laughter from Joco.

"Who knows? Going into the Great Spirit might be like going through a great hall, you know? That Pino guy was telling me about something like a grand hall in their mythology. Ren, what do you say?"

"Can't tell." And he can't. Even if he rose earliest just to see it. He won't speculate but he feels frustrated at Horohoro having ingrained this image into it. He falls asleep that night dreaming up staircases and icy halls.

83.Division

There was supposed to have been a thorough triage back with the Shaman Fight. He'd always expected one of them would be completely solo-ed out as they all did. It didn't happen. 

He's glad. The division between people's hearts is something he doesn't want to feel anymore.

84.Vivacious

Horohoro stretches when he sleeps, stretches when he wakes. Smiles and frowns with teeth and keeps a vivacious and expressive sort of energy underneath cold-weather clothes. Ren wonders what that must feel like, to be warned from within with such instinct.

85.Request

"Is it a threat or a request?"

"Both. I do want to tell you what I think but if you won't let me this time.. I might have to tell you anyway."

He shouldn't have to tell Horohoro how that's rude, so he turns to just walk it off and ignore it.

But he hears the other clear his throat and go "Listen, Ren. It's important ! I _lo--_

86.Metal

"And here I thought you listened to whatever sounds cows make." Ren muses with a shared earbud. There's pop, there's metal, there is an amalgamation of things mostly yelled and meant to motivate, with some traditional songs he doesn't understand mixed through a lot of rock.

"I'm into lots of different types of media, actually. I used to read comic books,too. A lot..when I was young." 

His view of the other expands with the information and he doesn't know in what way.

87.Addicted

Horo wishes he could just leave it. Instead he reaches out and grabs the other tall man by the jacket, by the arm, does anything to touch and get to connect even if it hurts. Gets addicted to the friction of personalities.

88.Realize

"I could never realize it for sure but you loved me, too." Horo states. On a bridge, in the wind and way too late. This shame and truth, and it is true. 

Ren still doesn't know what to say.

"That's OK." Horo reassures him, but it _isn't_.

89.Strange

It's strange because Ren cannot truly pinpoint what it is that he likes about Horo. It's not mental, that's for sure. Emotionally, he's lacking. Physically, there could be others. He's left guessing.

90.Broken

It's not quite alright, how sometimes the loved ones they invested in are gone now. It's not quite alright. It's quite broken how they're gone to eachother.

91.Duck

There's many types of wild fauna roaming around where they camp. Ducks shouldn't have been an issue.

"They stole the provisions. I can't believe it." Horo slumps to the floor.

Ren doesn't bother to scold his teammate for leaving them open. Whips out his own better guarded ones and extends a hand. " Here. We can share."

92.Jagged 

"When we had to rescue you I was afraid for you. Come to realize it, it was the second time. The first time it didn't really count until I saw all of the stuff you had to go through. The place, the blades with jagged edges, the cells. I'm sorry." He furrows a brow and recounts the times after they first incidentally met.

"I get it, you love me." Ren wants him to shut up. Wants him to keep going.

"I do." Horo states, obvious as sunrise.

93.Superficial

He picks up a discarded toy that reminds him of the time when he and Jun had to-

"Cute toys, _seriously_? Didn't think you were into superficial stuff like that. " Horo teases.

He didn't expect the insensitivity. "I'm not!"

94.Moan

It's embarassing moaning in one's sleep no matter how good the dream. He wakes up in cold sweat and on edge. There's no one else there but Ren, who has the courtesy to not say anything if he heard, but neither of them do catch any sound sleep when their bodies shift against the pillows again.

95.Question

"You think this is the best way?" he asks Ren, the complicated question. There are few good options left. However they kiss someone gets hurt. 

"No." A breath. 

"Yeah, _no_." A nod.

96.Nosy

"This is none of your business. You've always been nosy but you need to leave." He pointedly stares Horo down. It's frustrating because he looks like he isn't hearing it, hand still extended to Ren.

97.Crash

A fist to the face is a nostalgic occurrence, an icebreaker as they crash again first and only then get to talking.

98.Calm

When they finish yelling and fighting and there's the last of heaving breathing it feels calm. Nothing more to say but it isn't empty. Instead it's _full_ of them. An atmosphere of static that cannot last long when sparked again.

99.Tub

He remembers the poor furnishing Horohoro used to do in the place he rented with his sister. "You never replaced that tub?"

He got a scandalized look back. _"That's one of the best things we have!"_

100\. Devilish

"You can't just _pull me in like this_!-"

"-and _expect me to listen_ after-!" they're talking over eachother. The city noise masking out the arguing.

Once aware of it, they stop, the brazen smiles are devilish and the cars pass.

"Fine, you win." Horo concedes.

**Author's Note:**

> "Tank" was originally no idea of mine. Someone else came up with the idea for that in an old conversation where we poked fun at Ren's ambitious nature translated in a video-game context. Soo-No full credit, but it was fun to write.  
> Reviews are appreciated, so are requests. Happy holidays!


End file.
